Robert Flello
Main Page: Robert Flello (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)Department Debates - View all Robert Flello's debates with the Home Office
(9 years, 10 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Robert Flello (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Lab)
15. What recent discussions she has had with the chief constable of Lincolnshire on the budget of the Lincolnshire police.
The Minister for Policing, Criminal Justice and Victims (Mike Penning)
The Home Secretary and I meet all the chief constables regularly and I personally met the chief constable of Lincolnshire very recently.
Robert Flello
With more than 8,000 front-line police officers out of 16,000 cut already, is not the Lincolnshire chief constable right to warn that the loss of a further 6,000 front-line officers, along with other cuts, will simply mean that police forces across the country will collapse? They will go and there will not be any need for PCCs because there will not be any forces.
Mike Penning
I am sure the residents and constituents of Stoke-on-Trent South will be interested to hear about the hon. Gentleman’s interest in Lincolnshire. At the end of the day, it is for Lincolnshire and its chief constable to decide what they want to do and we will support them in those decisions. They do not have to be about a reduction in police officers; actually, we have seen an increase in the number of police officers on the ground in Lincolnshire.